Not the Fall
by Just A Starving Writer
Summary: It isn't the fall that kills you, they tell her jokingly. It's the landing. [Oneshot.]


**Not the Fall**  
_Just a Starving Writer_

**_Standard Disclaimer Applies  
Author's Plea: _**Written for Pick a Fic: Round ?? on my lj. As you will see, I was in a particularly odd mood at the time. That being said, enjoy if you can.

**_

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_It isn't the fall that kills you_, they tell her jokingly. _It's the landing._

Kagome doesn't always agree with this sage bit of wisdom. She doesn't understand why they find it funny.

She finds it terrifying.

When she'd first woken up that first terrible night after having the dream, it'd taken eighteen hours and two doses of medication to get back to sleep. She's had it every other night since. The situation sometimes changes, the lead-up sometimes changes, but the end remains the same.

The tower. Blank gold eyes. A slight push.

And right before impact, when her heart is ready to end it all early just to spare her mind the trouble, she hears it.

_Wake up, miko._

Every night without fail.

She wonders vaguely if eventually the fall will kill her, even without the landing, even within a dream.

More details reveal themselves each night as the dream progresses. More of the insubstantial is washed away, revealing a dream surface that is raw and unrelenting. The man on the tower is the last to be buffed. She'd thought it was her hanyou at first. When the grit is washed from her eyes, she can see her hanyou may have similar eyes, but not these eyes. He's never had skin so smooth, nor presence so unforgiving.

She wonders why she has to dream of the Western lord when she hasn't even seen him in months. She's never even given him much conscious thought until now. She's certainly never thought of him outside of the Past. And now she sees him nightly during her unconscious excursions to a half remembered future.

Kagome can't help but ask why.

_Don't know why you dream of that bastard_, the hanyou tells her with disgust.

_It's an ill portent_, the monk says wisely.

_It's just a dream_, the slayer tells her with authority.

And she cannot help but think that none of them are right.

So she continues to wonder and she continues to dream until she comes upon the grand opportunity to ask the cold eyes in question.

_You kill me every night_, she tells him softly.

_This Sesshoumaru would only need kill you once_, he responds simply.

She agrees and says nothing more of it, though the dreams persist. When he repeatedly crosses their path, when he repeatedly finds her alone, she still says nothing though the dreams persist to grow brighter, deadlier.

By the time the battle is won and she is locked in her true world, in her present, she can think of nothing but his intentions, think of nothing but him and the dream.

She dreams of nothing but dying and knows it is killing her.

And all that she can hear is the voice, reassuring now, telling her that despite her previous experiences with him and despite his clever blankness, the youkai on the tower would never let her fall.

_Wake up, miko._

It says nothing about him letting her land.

She plots and she ponders and she takes detailed notes each morning of what shined brightest the night before. She searches.

She finds the tower.

She finds the tower and when she can deny no longer the appeal to finish the dream, she visits.

She finds the tower and there at the top is the youkai.

His eyes are not as blank and the reality of the scene makes it brighter and less significant than in the dream. She asks why, and he has no answer.

He doesn't push, but she falls just the same.

Just as she realizes she will not wake this time, just as she feels her heart racing to kill her before the impact, she feels the shock of warmth on her hand. When she realizes she is no longer falling nor has she landed, she smiles up dizzily at her savior.

_Wake up, miko_, she whispers.

She's not awake when he pulls her back up, but she's alive all the same.

They don't fall in love. They are the last survivors of a dying accomplishment and they are better than that. There is far too much between them to warrant a fall. They use the present tense in their conversations of the past.

They don't fall in love, but they do come to a mutual understanding. She loves him all the same.

She doesn't fall in love because she knows will not survive the fall. She knows she's barely survived the landing.

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End file.
